After almost 100 minutes of tightly contested scoreless soccer, Scarborough finally capped its perfect season with a highlight-reel goal.
Lana Djuranovic headed in a corner kick from Ali Mokriski early in the second overtime Saturday night to give the Red Storm a 1-0 victory over Brunswick before a near-capacity crowd at Deering High’s Memorial Field in the Class A girls’ soccer state championship game.
The victory completed an 18-0 season in which the Red Storm allowed only three goals while scoring 91. Brunswick finished at 15-1-2.
“Of course it’s really sad,” said Brunswick senior goalkeeper Sophia Morin, “but if that’s the way we went out, that’s the way I would want to go out. We played so well. People had doubts about us, but we did not.”
Morin made 11 of her 14 saves in a second half that saw Scarborough continually threaten but never convert. In the first 15-minute overtime, Brunswick sophomore striker Alexis Morin unleashed a shot that Scarborough keeper Sophia Rinaldi leaped and batted with one hand, tipping it off the crossbar to prevent a Dragons celebration.
“I think it bounced off the crossbar and onto the goalpost,” Rinaldi. “Both teams really deserved it, but I think we just pushed it and really tried our hardest in the last 15 minutes.”
After earning only two corner kicks in regulation – both in the second half – Scarborough got another chance a little more than four minutes into the second overtime, with the wind at its back. Mokriski played a shorter ball to Djuranovic, who booted a hard grounder that rattled around the goal mouth before being kicked across the end line.
That set up a second corner kick.
“Ali plays amazing corners,” said Djuranovic, a junior. “It was right to me. I just jumped as high as I could and hit it as hard as I could. I saw it go in and tears filled my eyes, I was so excited.”
The ball caromed into the high corner to the right of Morin, Brunswick’s goalie.
“In practice, we call those go-home times,” Morin said. “They’re unsaveable. You’d have to be a 6-foot-9 professional goalie (to have a chance).”
Scarborough finished with a 14-9 advantage in shots. Rinaldi made four of her nine saves in the first overtime.
Brunswick opened with the wind at its back and held a 3-2 advantage in shots and a 4-0 edge in corner kicks in the first half. Dragons freshman Eva Kousky may have had the best chance before intermission, shooting from inside 10 yards after a feed from Kynli Van Leer with just under three minutes remaining in the half. However, Rinaldi was perfectly positioned and made the save.
The second half belonged to Scarborough. The Red Storm outshot Brunswick 11-2 but couldn’t put one past Morin, who finished regulation with 13 saves.
“You could see just that little bit of wind swayed the momentum each way,” said Scarborough Coach Mike Farley. “Losing the toss in overtime was actually a big deal. I was nervous we would survive that first 15 (minutes).”
Having survived the first overtime, Scarborough finally took advantage in the second.
“You could see the pressure shift again,” Farley said. “It was as well-played a girls’ soccer game as you’re ever going to see. Brunswick’s a really good team and really physical players all over the field. It was tough to get five inches on this field.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
